Dreaming of Winter

Coconut White Hot Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:40:00 +0000

Come over to our new blog to see this delicious recipe.

Life in Sweden and a new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:06:00 +0000

In the last year, Geoff and I have been rather bad with keeping up with our cooking blog. We have been very busy, having moved in January from Melbourne, Australia, to the beautiful student town of Uppsala in Sweden. More recently, we have relocated to Stockholm for the foreseeable future.

I have started a new blog recently, about life overseas, travel and so on, and as such, we won't be updating this blog. But Geoff and I will still be creating recipes, and I have just posted one now, a delicious brown sugar sponge cake with caramel pears.

I hope you can visit us there, where there will be many more wintery recipes in the future.

Mish and Geoff

Hungarian Goulash

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:52:00 +0000

After trying Fiakergulasch for the first time in Vienna, goulash was something I wanted to make at home.

The history of goulash has it starting as a herdsman's dish in Hungry. Over time it has evolved into a restaurant dish, somewhere between a stew and a soup.

There seems to be many different variants on how to make an authentic goulash, a little bit like an authentic bolognese sauce. For my first attempt, I am basing my goulash on June Meyer's recipe:

50g butter (or lard)
1L water
1 kg beef cubes (2-3 cm)
2 onions, chopped
2-3 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 bay leaves
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
pepper & salt
sour cream to serve

For the dumplings, you need:

1 egg
1/3 cup flour
pinch of salt

In a large pot, melt the butter and cook the onions until browned.

Add in the beef, paprika and a teaspoon of salt. On a low heat, simmer the beef in its juices for about an hour. This forms a rich sauce that is the main flavour of the final dish.

Add in the water, bay leaf and a bit more salt. Add in some black pepper to taste. Bring back to the boil, cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through and the meat is tender. Around 30-45 minutes.

While the goulash is simmering, make the egg dumplings.

Combine the flour, an egg and a pinch of salt into a dough. Stand the dough for half an hour.

When the dough has settled, make small dumpling balls and drop into the goulash. Once the dumplings start to float, cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream and enjoy.

Shanghai Scallions (葱油饼) with Smoked Salmon

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:12:00 +0000

Over at the Almost Bourdain blog is a very simple recipe for Shanghai Scallions (葱油饼), a savoury dough like pancake. This is a bit like an up market Australian damper.

They are quite easy to make, and the ingredient list is stuff you likely have lying around the house. After I'd made them a few times, we were looking for something simple for lunch, and tried them as a base for salmon and a bit of dill. Not quite traditional, but very tasty!

To make this, you will need:

250 g all-purpose flour, with some extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon of salt
110 ml warm water
20 g spring onions, finely chopped from the green part of the onion
50 g vegetable oil
smoked salmon
cream cheese
dill
a drop or two of lemon juice

Making the pancakes takes a bit of preparation, for full details, refer to this article.

To make the dough mix the sifted flour and salt, then slowly mix in the warm water. It took a few attempts at making these until I got the dough consistency to my liking, however they still taste great if the dough isn't quite right.
Rest the dough under cling wrap for half an hour or so.
Split the dough into two pieces and then roll out into a quite thin circle. The thinner you get it, the better the pancakes turn out.
Brush the surface of the pancake with a generous amount of the vegetable oil, and sprinkle the spring onions around. This helps the layers form, so don't skimp on the oil.
Roll the pancake and then pinch the ends together. Then flatten slightly and twist into a spiral. (Look at the pictures here).
Flatten the spiral into a pancake. Either use your hands or the rolling pin.
Cook the pancake in a fry pan on medium heat, with some oil, for 3-4 minutes on each side. If the pan is too hot, the outside will burn and the middle will be raw. Cut into wedges and serve.
For the topping, mix together a generous amount of dill and the lemon with the cream cheese. Spread generously over the pancake wedges and top with the smoked salmon.

The pancakes are a great side dish, and with the salmon make a very tasty lunch.

Gingerbread Snowflakes

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:20:00 +0000

We are back from two wonderful weeks in Sweden - we visited Stockholm, Örebro and Uppsala. We had a fantastic time catching up with old friends and making some new ones.

Here is a recipe for the gingerbread snowflakes I made for my birthday dinner a few weeks ago. Actually I used the same recipe I did for the gingerbread Christmas tree back in December, but I think they are quite a bit cuter than the christmas tree.

I'll just post it here again:

You will need:

1/2 cups of brown sugar
130 g unsalted butter
1/2 golden syrup (or treacle)
1 egg, separated
3 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp ground cloves
1 tsp bicarb soda
200 g icing sugar
Snow flake cutter

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine your butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and when smooth separate your egg and add the yoke into the mix and combine. Combine in the golden syrup.

Sift in the flour, bi carb soda and spices and combine with the rest of the mixture.

Knead into a smooth ball and wrap in cling wrap and then place in the fridge for at least an hour, but I would recommend a couple of days so the spicy flavours thoroughly infuse the dough.

After at least an hour (I left mine in the fridge over night), take the dough from the fridge and lightly dust a clean surface with some plain flour and well as lightly dusting your rolling pin with flour as well.

Take a little of your dough and roll it until it is fairly thin, no more that about 4 mm high and put them on trays covered in baking paper and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Repeate for the remaining dough.

Once the gingerbreads have cooled, it is time to ice them.

For the icing put your left over egg white to good use by using an electric mixer to mix it until it forms fairly stiff peaks and then sift in the icing sugar and combine. Add in a couple of drops of food colouring if you like. I used a couple of different bowls and added red to one, blue to another and left another white.

The icing part took me a looooong time to get the hang of - not only to get the correct consistency for the icing (add more icing sugar for finer details), but also to be able to ice without the snowflakes looking like they had been iced by someone who had just had 7 bottles of vodka. Finally after a about 10 cookies that looked so ugly I made Geoff eat them so they would not see the light of day, I got the hang of it.

I am looking forward to making more soon to practice my icing skills (and because they are delicious!)

Bitterballen

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:23:00 +0000

A couple of weekends ago Geoff and I had a dinner party to celebrate my birthday with some friends. Apart from making a huge pot of glühwein using my recipe, which is a yearly tradition for me, I also made gingerbread snowflakes, tartiflette and bitterballen.

Unfortunately by the time the tartiflette was ready, we were all a little hungry so we did not take photos of it for me to post up the recipe, so I'll just have to make it again. It was divine - how could anything involving the combination of potatoes, crème fraiche, white wine, jambon, brie, garlic, onions and thyme not be.

I decided to also make bitterballen as they are something I loved to eat growing up, but I had been reluctant to make them due to stories of the ridiculous amount of time it takes to create them. This proved to be (relatively) untrue. They took two days to make, but don't be fooled - they were not two full days of cooking or I'd have served dips, Turkish bread, double smoked gypsy ham and cheeses like I did last year - just a couple of hours on both days.

I have used the recipe from the ridiculously amazing book 'Snow Flakes and Schnapps' by Jane Lawson, I took the idea of adding in ketjap manis from this gorgeous food blog, and of course called my mother 15 times to get tips and help from her, plus to check if the recipe sounded like how my grandmother used to make them - and as always changing things around a bit for my own entertainment.

Bitterballen and their longer, larger, more sausage shaped friends kroketten are scrumptious Dutch snacks that have a soft meaty filling surrounded by a crispy coating of fried breadcrumbs. Dip them in whichever mustard makes you happy and life can really not get much better, especially on a cold and rainy night, such was my birthday party (well as cold as Australia can get!).

As with many staple foods around the world, bitterballen were created to use up scraps of things lying around, in this case meat, and reformed into something new and tasty. As such, the cut of meat you use is unimportant, I just bought some diced beef from the butcher.

What you will need:

Butter (I used salted)
1 small brown onion
400 g of beef (any old cut will do)
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp of finely chopped thyme
750 ml beef stock
350 ml milk
1 bay leaf
ketjap manis
Plain flour
5 eggs
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil to use to fry the bitterballen
Your mustard(s) of choice

Now you will need to begin this the day before you serve them so that the filling has time to set in the fridge overnight.

To begin add a tablespoon of butter to a large pot and fry the chopped up onion until it browns a little. Add in the thyme and the crushed garlic and stir together. Add in the meat and brown.

Add the stock, milk and the bay leaf and bring to the boil and then let it simmer happily away for about 2 hours. Have a glass of wine, read a book, contemplate the meaning of life, or do what I actually did in that time - make incredibly cute gingerbread snowflakes!

Once the meat is falling apart nicely turn off the stove and strain the liquid - making sure to save it in a separate bowl - and place the meat in a large dish. Pull apart the meat using two forks so there are no large pieces remaining.

Place 3 tablespoons of butter in a fry pan and melt. Add in 75 g (or half a cup) of plain flour and combine. Whisk in about 310 ml of the strained liquid and continue until the mixture is beautifully smooth and very thick - this happened so fast and easily for me I thought perhaps I had done something wrong!

Add this sauce to the meat and combine, along with 1 tablespoon of the ketjap manis. You may want to add in a little salt - but for me it tasted really good without adding anything more. Some recipes advocate adding in things such as parsley - which I hate with a passion and have omitted from this recipe - feel free to add this or nutmeg if you enjoy the added flavour.

Make sure the mixture is evenly spread out in the dish and then cover the dish in cling wrap and put in the fridge overnight.

Day Two

By this point your mixture should be well and truly firm - but if it is not, don't stress, it is still not so hard to roll them into balls if it is a little soft - just put a little flour on yours hands first.

Start a production line - put some plain flour on a plate, whisk some eggs in a bowl next to it, cover another plate in breadcrumbs and finally an empty container in which to place the finished bitterballen.

Use a teaspoon to take small amounts of the mixture and roll them into balls - cover them first in flour, then dip them in the eggs, then cover them evenly in bread crumbs, dip them again in the eggs and again in the breadcrumbs. Make sure the bitterballen are properly coated and that the breadcrumb does not have cracks or they could fall apart when you fry them. Repeat for the remaning filling - you should get around 35 - 40.

I then placed the finished bitterballen in the fridge until the guests arrived a couple of hours later - you could also freeze any additional ones for another day.

To fry these tasty bites, use a little deep fryer like this one, or a heavy saucepan filled one third of the way up with the vegetable oil and heated to around 180 degrees Celsius. Fry the balls until they are golden brown and then transfer them to a paper towel covered plate to take off excess oil.

Serve with mustard and enjoy while they are still nice and warm.

Now, to finish packing for Sweden!

Smoked salmon and dill on pumpernickle with apple and cashews

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:10:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago Geoff and I were both on holidays and I was inspired to make us this delicious breakfast of pumpernickel with cream cheese, smoked salmon and fresh dill, couple with sliced apple and a few roasted cashew nuts.

We roasted the cashew nuts a day or two earlier in the oven, sprinkled with a little salt and also used them in a wonderful stir fry I will post up.

It took about 4 minutes to make, and was fresh, tasty and quite healthy. Yum!

Fresh Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:04:00 +0000

Last weekend Geoff and I were watching this TED video by William Li about cancer fighting foods, and it inspired me to cook something using tomatoes.

The video is well worth watching, and although it reiterates many of the foods that have been recommended for their health benefits over the years, it is good to be reminded that I should make an effort to cook some of them more often, and that they really do have a positive impact on your health.

Just to summarise, some of the things he highly recommends are: green tea, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, oranges, lemons, apples, red grapes, red wine, bok choy, soy beans, ginseng, artichoke, pumpkin, tuna, garlic, tomato and olive oil.

Rather than made the pasta myself, we decided to try pasta from a lovely store near our house called Donninis Pasta that we have been meaning to try for some time. We chose artichoke agnolotti.

The pasta was beautiful and fresh and had a lovely flavour. I am looking forward to trying the pumpkin and almond agnolotti very soon.

I decided to make a simple tomato sauce to go with it, which took no time at all to make, but tastes delicious.

You will need:
For two people

6 large ripe tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Salt
Sugar

Simply cut the tomatoes in half and place onto a tray or into a largish dish. Chop up the garlic into slivers and stick them into the tomatoes, about 2 slivers each. Chop up some basil and stick this into the tomatoes as well. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle some salt over the top.

Place in an oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes.

Once cooked, I like to mash it together with a potato masher so it is a little more rustic in texture, however if you prefer it to be more smooth, then use an electric mixer. Sprinkle in half a teaspoon of sugar and a little more salt to taste.

Boil a pot of water, and then place the pasta in to cook for about 5 minutes. Drain and serve. Very easy and delicious!

Kanelbullar

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:57:00 +0000

Kanelbullar are delicious little Swedish cinnamon and cardamon rolls, traditionally eaten as a part of fika, which is basically Swedish for having a chat over coffee and little cakes like this. What a delightful word, it is things like this that made me love the Swedish language.

I made these for my last Swedish class of the semester a couple of weeks ago, and they were eaten very very quickly! I was actually surprised how easy these are to make, and how little time they took. I'll be making them regularly I think.

Geoff and I are off to Sweden in a couple of weeks for one of my best friend's wedding, so I am looking forward to having lots of delicious Swedish food there.

The recipe I used can be found here.

What you will need:

For the buns

25g of yeast (I used dried yeast)
75g of butter
2 and a half dl of milk
Half a dl of white sugar
A pinch of salt
1 tsp of cardamon
Around 7 dl of plain flour (you may need a little more, just see how sticky the dough is)

For the cinnamon sugar/filling

50 g butter or margarine
Half a dl of white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon (The recipe says only 1, but the more the merrier I say)

Glaze

An egg

Melt the butter over the stove, and then add the milk until warm (around 37 degrees Celsius). Take off the stove and mix in the yeast allowing it to dissolve. Mix in the salt, cardamon and sugar.

Sift in the flour half a cup at a time - I ended up using a little more that 7 dl to ensure the dough was not too sticky.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to rise. While you are waiting, mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Take the dough out and on a lightly floured bench, roll it into a 20cm x 50 cm rectangle. Spread the butter or margarine over the top. Sprinkle your cinnamon sugar over the butter. Roll the dough from the bottom up and then cut into 1/2 cm slices and place into cupcake containers as shown in the photo below.

Leave these to rise for another 30 minutes.

Whisk your egg and brush this over the top of each kanelbullar, and then sprinkle with pearl sugar. I found pearl sugar in this shop in Melbourne, but it is quite a bit bigger than I would have liked.

Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Enjoy with some good friends over a cup of tea or coffee.

A nice variation might be to replace the cardamon in the dough with cinnamon, and to dice up apples to scatter with the cinnamon sugar to make apple scrolls instead.

Spanish Style Chicken with Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Chorizo and I have a long history. It is the meat I craved the most while I spent two years as a vegetarian. So I'm biased toward Spanish food.

This week, I tried adding some chicken and rice to chorizo. The results were amazing.

There were a few steps, and getting it cooked required a bit more organisation than I normally apply in the kitchen. I recommend slicing the ingredients in advance, as there is not much time between each step once you get started.

You will need:

4 small chicken thighs (I used boneless skin free)
2 chorizo sausages, sliced
160g short or medium grain rice (Calasparra if you're being fancy)
1 small onion, thinly diced
1 red capsicum, thinly diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
a pinch of saffron threads (if you have them)
250g (1 punnet) cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup oregano (I used a fresh paste)
500 mL chicken stock (use real stock, it matters)
a handful of green beans, cut in half

First, prepare the chicken. Dust the pieces in a mixture of flour and salt, seasoned to taste. Then in a large (24cm) deep frying pan (or paella pan), fry the chicken in a few tablespoons of olive oil on a medium to high heat. The chicken should end up golden after 3-4 minutes. Remove and put aside.

Add the chorizo (yum!) to the pan and cook for a few minutes until golden. Set aside with the chicken.

Add the rice to the oil, stir to coat, and then stir for another 2-3 minutes until browned. From here, it is mostly about adding flavour to the rice.

Add onion, capsicum, and garlic. Stir frequently until the onion is very soft. Takes about 6-7 minutes. Then add the spices and stir until fragrant (1 minute).

Add in the liquid stock, tomatoes, capsicum, and chorizo. Place the chicken on top and bring to a simmer. Cover with a lid or with foil and cook for 10 minutes. Add the beans and cook covered for a further 6-8 minutes.

If you can resist the wonderful smell, let it stand for 5 minutes to soak up the remaining liquid. Serve and enjoy!

Based on a recipe from Gourmet Traveller.

Carrot Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:20:00 +0000

One of Michelle's favourite cakes is a simple carrot cake. The trick to a good carrot cake is to have the result be moist and not too dense; tasty icing helps too.

This recipe is adapted from a Donna Hay version of carrot cake. You could use other nuts or sultanas, however walnuts & pineapple slices are a winning combination.

You will need:

1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bi-carb of soda (baking soda)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (although I used a bit more)
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 1/2 cups finely grated carrot
3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or other nut)
1/2 cup roughly chopped pineapple pieces
250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 lemon
1 cup icing sugar (or to taste)

Start things off by preheating the oven to 180 degrees. You will also need a greased cake tin, preferable spring form as it is easier to extract the cake.

Mix the sugar and oil together in a bowl with an electric mixer for around 3 minutes. Gradually add the 3 eggs and beat well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bi-carb, cinnamon & ginger over the sugar mixture. It is easier if you combine this separately before sifting.

Now you have a good batter, stir in the carrot, walnuts & pineapple pieces.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for around 55-60 minutes.

For the icing, combine the cream cheese, some lemon rind and the sugar together and then spread over the cake. If you have any left over, sprinkle some of the walnuts over the top.

Now watch the cake disappear. Ours was a great treat on Good Friday and was gone within a day between four people. With all the carrot, it was a healthy treat, right?

Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Hello! Has it really been over a month since I last posted? Let me dust away the cobwebs and bring you a new recipe.

But before then, many many things have happened in the last month, the most important and exciting of which is that Geoff and I are now engaged!

Geoff is also travelling quite a bit for work, and I am back finishing my masters, so all is well, but very very busy.

The recipe today is Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce. I have not been able to find much information on where this recipe is from, some sources say England, others New Zealand and others Australia. In any case, it is delicious, and I am sure it must be slightly healthy, what with all the dates... hmmm (strategically ignoring the cream, sugar, cream and oh yes, cream).

The recipe I used is from the Australian TV show called Masterchef, which I read somewhere was the highest rating TV show in Australian history. This would not surprise me, as I really don't watch much TV but I made an effort to watch this show on a regular basis, as it was so good. This was one of their many many delicious recipes, so I would recommend having a look at their website to find more.

You will need:

For the pudding itself:

180 g chopped, pitted dates
1 1/4 cups of water
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
60 grams of butter, soft
2 eggs
1 cup of self raising flour

For the almond praline:

1/2 cup of caster sugar
1/4 cup slivered almonds

For the butterscotch sauce:

50 g butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of cream
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Ok, lets get started with the pudding. Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celsius and butter the pans you intend to cook the pudding in. I normally use a cake pan, but you make make little individual puddings as well if you like.

Chop the dates and add them and the water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then remove from the heat and add in the bicarb soda and stir in order to break down the dates. Leave to cool, but stir every now and then.

In a bowl, add the sugar and butter and mix with an electric mixer, adding in one egg at a time. Once light and fluffy, add in the date mixture and then fold in the flour.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin and place in the over for at least 30 minutes. The recipe says 40, but mine would have been overcooked, so just check in case it needs 10 minutes more.

Now for the almond praline. Sounds easy... just don't leave it on the stove and get distracted by a book and set the fire alarm off... hmmm... not that I would ever ever have done that!! lalala

Cover a baking tray in baking paper and sprinkle almonds over it. Add the sugar into a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Swirl the pan around and take off the heat once the mixture is beautiful and golden. Pour over the almonds and leave to cool.

Last but not least, the butterscotch sauce, one of the most delicious things on earth. Add the butter, cream, sugar and vanilla to a saucepan and leave on low heat until the butter is melted. The turn up the heat to boil, and finally reduce the heat until the sauce thickens.

For lazy days, you really do not need the almond praline, the rest of the recipe has more than enough sugar to put even the most sweet obsessed people into a sugar coma for a week or so... but it does look very cute!

Serve your sticky date pudding on a plate, drizzled with the butterscotch sauce, with a piece of almond praline, and maybe a little cream or ice cream to finish.

Enjoy and be merry, and remember, there is fruit in this recipe, so it must be ok!! (ok, well at least it tastes divine!)

Delicious Red Capsicum Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:04:00 +0000

I apologise for such a long time between recipes, but to be honest, lately I have had little to no desire to post, but rather have been reveling in university holidays. But now it is time for a new recipe, which can be eaten not only on a beautiful wintry night, but also in summer (just chill it first).

I am also excited to post in the near future some recipes from a beautiful German cookbook I bought in Bavaria around Christmas, so keep your eyes open for those in the next month. Many of the recipes are biscuits which I don't think I have posted here before, so that will be a nice addition to the blog I think.

You will need:

6 large red capsicums
4 -5 lemons
Bacon
Sour cream
Vegetable stock
Olive oil
Salt

Simply slice and de-seed the red capsicums (I think maybe they are called peppers in other countries?) and place them on a tray. Brush them with a little olive oil and pop them into the oven at about 200 degrees Celsius. Leave them in there until the skins start to turn black and then remove them from the oven to cool for a little while.

Once the slices have cooled enough to pick them up quite easily without fear of third degree burns, peel off the skins (oh what fun Geoff and I had doing this!) and then place the skinless slices into whatever pot you intend to use to make the soup.

Once completed use a hand held bamix type mixer (If you do not have one, then place the slices into a blender) and mix until smooth. Juice your lovely lemons and add the juice to the soup (add the extra lemon if you prefer the soup to be a little more tangy, which is what I think this soup is all about really).

Add in 250 ml of vegetable stock and mix it all together and then leave to slowly heat on the stove whilst you make the delicious bits of crispy baconness.

Slice about 4 pieces of bacon into little squares and fry in a fry pan with some olive oil and a little salt (smoked bacon is ideal) until the pieces are nice and crispy.

To serve ladle the soup into bowls, add a generous dollop of sour cream and sprinkle some of the bacon over each serving and mostly importantly, enjoy!

Delicious!!!! And healthy! And being such a lovely red colour helps too I think.

The Book

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:04:00 +0000

The idea was simple. Use the recipes from this blog to create a book to give family as a Christmas present. The challenge was in the timing. Posts to write, photos to shoot, book design to complete, all by the start of December to allow time for shipping.

We're incredibly happy with how it worked out. Blurb did a wonderful job of printing them, and they arrived in time to put under the tree.

This edition of our cookbook marks a beginning. Fifteen recipes from our first year of blogging.

The book is now available on Blurb:

Adventures in Perth and Margaret River

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Lovely Perth

Welcome to Western Australia, a place - up until late 2009 - that neither Geoff nor I had ever visited. I meant to post this last year, but better late than never in this case. We have just returned from Europe and will be posting new recipes very soon.

We started our adventure in Perth where we stayed with Geoff's lovely sister and her husband for a few days.

On the first night we went out for a delicious meal in Fremantle at the Left Bank, where I had Moroccan lamb with couscous and Geoff had salmon of some sort...

A view from outside the Left Bank restaurant

One of the first things I noticed about WA - even in Perth - was that wild flowers were growing everywhere! Even as we drove along the highway, bushes of pink and purple flowers in every shade imaginable lined the road.

Some beautiful wild flowers

We visited the Swan Valley - Western Australia's oldest wine region - on our second day.

We did very little wine tasting for some odd reason, and rather turned our sights to the Margaret River Chocolate Company - which despite being a very ugly building indeed, housed some very very delicious chocolate. Geoff and I bought a selection of little chocolates and when we returned a few days later to their shop in Margaret River, I bought quite a bit more of their cookies and cream chocolate which was ridiculously delicious and very soon disappeared...

We then headed off to Mondo Nougat where I tried the macadamia and honey nougat (yum!) and where we spotted this very cute car (a classic Fiat 500!) inside.

Outside its newer relative lived with a number plate along the lines of ItalnStal1on. Speaking of which, WA seems to be the home of personalised number plates... I have never seen so many in my life!

So after a very delicious tour of Perth we were of to R ottnest Island, where we spent the day exploring the island by bus and on foot, but sadly did not spot a quokka.

The lighthouse at Rottnest Island

View of the ocean from Rottnest Island

The next day we explored Perth a little and had lunch at the Little Creatures brewery.

View from the brewery

We had a lovely tapas style lunch at the eccentric brewery and Geoff enjoyed a beer. I think whoever owns this brewery must have quite a good sense of humor or a little joie de vivre - at least that is the feeling I got!

A little creatures beer

After a day or two of doing very little (ok ok, a day or two of me taking over Geoff's iPhone to play Civilisations - a short lived addiction, thankfully) Geoff and I hired a car and drove down to Margaret River, which is a lovely areas filled with a very small river, vineyards and great surf beaches.

We decided to stay at the very cute Bridgefield guest house as it came highly recommended by Geoff's sister and mum.

One of our first stops was Voyager Wines, where apparently the owner does not drink at all... hmmm...

Voyager Wines

Geoff and I decided to throw caution to the wind and actually try a little wine at a winery - we are very adventurous like that. In the end however we ended up following in the footsteps of the owner and only buying non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice, which is a lot more tasty and exciting than it might sound!

Some very cute Western Australian cows (and look how green the grass is for us drought stricken east coast Australians)

The Margaret River Providore was our next stop, and it was simply heaven on earth!

The Margaret River Providore

As you can see in the picture they grown their own organic produce locally to use in their cafe and products. The shop had a very very long tabled lined with products to taste and everything I tried was delicious. Geoff and I ended up spending a small fortune there, buying products such as raspberry coulis and mango coulis (both of which have gone very well on crepes and also ice cream), salad dressing and much more. Later I was told that they also fly in dough from France and bake fresh bread each day at the store.

It is a pity their website does not list their products actually...

In Margaret River we dined at Must Bistro and the food was incredible. A wonderful multi-course meal with wine expertly pair with our orders. The menu is wonderful with the daily specials adding in a range of exciting options. Geoff had a tasting plate of a beef cheek pie and a Wagu steak on the side. Dessert melted in our mouths.

The rest of our time in WA was spent driving hours to go to a berry farm for what turned out to be very very average pancakes, visiting Dome cafe which had some yummy coffee, walking around Perth and lots of relaxing!

We also stumbled across a truffle farm on our way back. The place itself isn't anything too spectacular, but the combination of their truffle oil with some Dukkah from the Providore is simply heaven!

I am very glad now to have seen a small slice of Western Australia and I am looking forward to going back and seeing more in the future. Rumours are we will have an excuse in May 2010.

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Hello everyone. We are back again after a little break in which Geoff has been overseas quite a bit for work, and I have handed in my thesis (yay!).

Today we spent a lovely day at the Scandinavian Christmas Festival at the Swedish Church in Melbourne. We had some lovely open sandwiches with Swedish meatballs, julmust, cream cakes with strawberries and some Danish æbleskiver.

I promised to post up a gingerbread recipe, so here is a very cute one using gingerbread stars made into Christmas trees with royal icing and some icing sugar and edible glitter sprinkled over the top. If you have any stars left over you can cover them in icing and eat them later (or while you are making your tree...). I used the left over dough to make some snowflake gingerbread biscuits which I intended to post here, however they have since been eaten...

I was inspired by the gingerbread Christmas tree in the latest issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller, however I have used a different gingerbread recipe.

Geoff and I are off to Paris in one week and then to Vienna for Christmas and Berlin for New Years. I am hoping to post up a recipe for gingerbread cheese cake before we leave though. But if I don't get a chance to post before then, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year and thank you for reading our blog this year!

We'll post up some pictures when we get back of the Christmas markets and so on.

So on with the recipe...

You will need:

1/2 cups of brown sugar
130 g unsalted butter
1/2 golden syrup (or treacle)
1 egg, separated
3 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp ground cloves
1 tsp bicarb soda
200 g icing sugar
Edible glitter (if you like!)
Star cookie cutters (6 different sizes)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine your butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and when smooth separate your egg and add the yoke into the mix and combine. Combine in the golden syrup.

Sift in the flour, bi carb soda and spices and combine with the rest of the mixture.

Knead into a smooth ball and wrap in cling wrap and then place in the fridge for at least an hour, but I would recommend a couple of days so the spicy flavours thoroughly infuse the dough.

After at least an hour, take the dough from the fridge and lightly dust a clean surface with some plain flour and well as lightly dusting your rolling pin with flour as well.

Take a little of your dough and roll it until it is fairly thin, no more that about 4 mm high. I started with quite thin stars, but I think it looks a bit better if they are about 4 mm thick. Cut six or so of each sized star (about 12 if you plan to make two ... and you will have enough dough for two) and put them on trays covered in baking paper and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Repeat for the remaining dough.

For the icing put your left over egg white to good use by using an electric mixer to mix it until it forms fairly stiff peaks and then sift in the icing sugar and combine. If adding in food colouring makes you happy, add some now, however I chose to stick with white.

Once your gingerbread stars have cooled, place the largest on a plate and pipe some of the royal icing onto it and then place another star on top of that. Repeat until you have created an incredibly cute Christmas tree. Then dust a little icing sugar over the whole thing to make it look like snow and add a little edible glitter over that.

Eat and enjoy!

Delicious Wiener Schnitzel

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Well dreaming of winter is about all I can do here at the moment in Melbourne, Australia. We have been experiencing a heatwave of over 33 degrees each day for about 5 days in a row... yesterday was even 36 degrees, which I suppose some might find delightful, but I chose to spend it in lovely air conditioning. Salvation is nigh with 23 degrees next Monday, which I can not wait for!

Mostly I am looking out for a cooler day so I can go to Starbucks and buy a Gingerbread latte. Yum!!! They make me so happy!!! It is like a big mug of Christmas deliciousness, topped with cream and Cinnamon. Gingerbread latte's were one of the things that convinced me to get up and go to work on a cold, dark, rainy morning in London.

Actually I do make these at home myself so I will pop the recipe up in a week or two when Geoff gets back from overseas for work, and can take the photo for me. I'll also be posting up an actual gingerbread recipe... despite my constant chatter about my love for gingerbreads I have yet to post one, so it is about time. I did consider making a gingerbread house, but I am not sure how that will go in 35 degree heat... I fear it might colapse.

I am also getting very excited about our trip to Europe which is now only about 4 weeks away. I can't wait to see Paris for the first time and to catch up with my wonderful friends Marlene and Andy in Vienna. We have already arranged to meet at the Christmas Markets for a mug of glühwein our first night there. I am also quite excited about picking up my clothes, 90% of which are still living in Marlen and Andy's basement from when I came to Australia for a 6 week holiday in July 2007 and ended up staying for quite a while longer...

Lastly, I am very excited at the prospect of hopefully having handed in my thesis by this time next month (depending on what my supervisor says on the 25th of this month). Still quite a bit of work to do though...

But anyway, on with the recipe for today, a delicious wiener schnitzel (Vienna Schnitzel). This was one of my favourite things to eat when I lived in beautiful Vienna.

Schnitzel is the perfect meal on a cold winter's night, and is incredibly delicious when combined with a little lemon and served with salad or potatoes.

You will need:
(Serves 4)

4 veal, chicken or pork fillets
2 eggs
milk
breadcrumbs
oil
1 lemon

If you have not been able to buy already thin schnitzel fillets then flatten your meat using a meat mallet or any other hard object, such as a rolling pin.

Whisk the 2 eggs together in a bowl with a small amount of milk and a pinch of salt.

Cover one plate in breadcrumbs and another in flour.

Coat the schnitzel fillets in flour and then dip them into the bowl containing the egg mixture, making sure the entire schnitzel is covered.

Finally cover the schnitzel in the breadcrumbs and put aside on a plate while you finish the others.

Heat some oil in a pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan and cook the schnitzels in batches until they are golden drown. You may wish to dab access oil off using paper towels.

Serve on a plate with a slice of lemon and a green salad or even potato salad.

Enjoy! (Hopefully with a glass of wine and family/good friends)

Apple Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Wilson) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Apple pie is simple to bake and delicious to eat. There are many different ways of creating the ultimate apple pie. I seem to end up with a variant every time. This recipe approximates how the last one was made.

Ingredients

800g stewed apple (tinned pie apple is okay)
1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cloves
250g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
370g plain flour
1 pinch of salt
3 tablespoons water

Mix the apple, brown sugar, cinnamon & cloves together in a bowl. Leave to sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two for the flavours to combine.

Sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the butter & salt. Add the water and stir until a consistent texture. Don't worry if it feels a bit damp.

Place the pastry dough into the refrigerator for 30min. This lets the dough firm enough to use.

Separate dough into two large chunks. Use one to line the bottom and sides of a medium sized cake tin.

Fill the cake tin with the apple mixture.

Spread the remaining dough over the top of the apple mixture. Baste with some milk. Make a few cuts in the middle of the lid to allow the apple to breathe while cooking.

Bake for 45 minutes in at 180 degrees.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream (or both!).

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes - Zurich Style Diced Veal Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:17:00 +0000

This delicious recipe is from the equally delicious book 'Winter In The Alps - Food by the Fireside' by Manuela Darling-Gansser. I fell in love with this book the moment I came across it one evening in a bookshop I like to visit when I really ought to be writing my thesis instead...

'Winter in the Alps' it is a combination of a cook book and a travel book with scrumptious recipes from Switzerland's many regions and stunning photography that really reminds me of how much I would like to travel through Switzerland by train one day.

This is the first dinner I have made from this book - I also made the Swiss pear bread a number of months ago and will post the recipe here once Geoff and I have a little photo re-shoot and I learn to take it out of the oven before it becomes a little too brown...

I did make a rösti to go with this, however it did not survive the flip out of the pan in order to be photographed, so I'll be posting that at a later date as well... I promise I am a good cook, really!

This recipe is a creamy, rich, delicious meal perfect on a wintery evening with a glass of red wine.

You will need:

1 kg veal back strap sliced into strips
2-3 tbsp plain flour
50 g unsalted butter
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
15 fresh sage leaves chopped
200 g Swiss brown mushrooms thickly sliced
250 ml dry white wine
300 ml cream

Coat the meat in flour. Heat half of the oil and butter in a frying pan and once the butter foams add the meat and brown it quickly. Place the meat on a plate and put to the side.

Add the rest of the butter and oil to the pan and saute the onion, garlic and sage. After a few minutes add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes after they have started to soften.

Add the wine ato deglaze the bottom of the pan, then add back in the veal and cook, stirring until the wine has evaporated. Turn down the heat to low and continue to cook for another 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and at the last moment add in the delicious cream, allowing to bubble for two minutes.

Remove from the heat, serve, enjoy and be merry!

Ostkaka - Swedish Cheesecake recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:27:00 +0000

This is a recipe for the delicious ostkaka, which is Swedish for cheese cake. It it not like normal cheesecake however, but is served warm and as Geoff commented when I made it, a little more like custard than a traditional cheese cake.

I have used this recipe which uses cottage cheese however the traditional way to make it involves using milk and ostlöpe (rennet) such as in this recipe. Try as I might, I have been unable to find rennet anywhere in Melbourne. The Swedish recipe says you can just buy it at the chemist, so I assume it must be fairly easy to buy in other countries, and I do think I have seen it mentioned in a couple of American recipes as well so hopefully you can get it there.

If anyone does know where you can buy it in Australia, please let me know as I would love to make the recipe the traditional way.

In the comments of another Ostkaka recipe, I did find a suggestion that an Indian cheese called Paneer could be used as a better alternative to cottage cheese, but I have not come across this cheese myself. Another suggestion is to blend the cheese it in a food processor to give it a better consistency.

All of this said, this version of the ostkaka is very very delicious and I am sure you will enjoy it!

Anyway, on with the recipe!

Ostkaka with cottage cheese:

You will need:
(Serves 5-6)

1/4 cup of almonds (I used almond slivers)
3 eggs
5 tbsp sugar (6 or 7 might be better though as I did not find this very sweet)
1/4 cup of plain flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
500g cottage cheese

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

If you are using whole almonds, chop them roughly, otherwise just use slivered almonds (I put these on everything! They are very good with semolina or custard).

Whisk the eggs and sugar together and then add in the sifted flour, milk, cream, cottage cheese and almonds. (You can use all milk or all cream if you prefer, I just though I would use a combination.)

Stir to combine and then pour into an oven proof dish of some sort. I just used a spring form pan, but you could use a ceramic square dish if you like. Something capable of holding a liter and a half.

Bake for 1 hour and then serve warm with whipped cream and lingon berry jam, or any cute berries you have really.

Enjoy!

Spinach, Feta and Roasted Pine Nut Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Geoff and I have just been visiting Western Australia for the past 8 days, hence the absence of posts. We had a lovely holiday exploring Perth and some surrounding areas, and also had some very delicious meals which we will post about this week.

Luckily our delicious bottles of port, raspberry coulis, mustard, butterscotch liqueur, truffle oil and other tasty things we bought while we were away survived the flight intact, and we will be posting all about our visit to the beautiful wine region in WA - Margaret River - this week. We also visited the Margaret River Chocolate Company, but for some weird reason we don't have any chocolate left to photograph... hmmm...

Also today while we were killing time in Perth before our flight, we went to see the very funny movie Julie & Julia, which is great if you like food, cooking, food blogging, French food, laughter, etc...

Anyway, back to the recipe!

I don't usually equate winter with salads, but this one is a real exception. The mixture of the spinach with the roasted pine nuts and feta is delicious, warm and comforting, perfect for a beautiful winters evening.

You will need:

Fresh spinach - about 250 g or so
3 tbsp of pine nuts
Bulgarian feta
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Avocado (optional)

Wash the spinach under some water, drain it and add it to a large bowl.

Crumble a good amount of the Bulgarian feta over the top of the salad. I really would recommend that you use Bulgarian or another similar feta that is quite soft and crumbles easily so that it melts and creates a delicious creamy dressing once you have added the pine nuts - Greek feta simply does not do this.

Toast the pine nuts in oil with some salt - be very careful as they cook quite quickly. Pour the pine nuts over the salad, as well as any remaining oil.

Carefully mix the salad allowing the oil to melt the feta and cover the spinach leaves.

If you are so inclined, add in some sliced avocado as a delicious extra.

Enjoy alone or as a side dish - we had this with some chicken breast marinated in mustard, honey and soy sauce.

Spinach Quiche Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:06:00 +0000

It seems Melbourne has decided it is winter again, to my great happiness! So to celebrate I decided to make one of my favourite meals - a delicious spinach and cheese quiche.

There are so many different variations of quiche, so if you are not very keen on spinach, simply substitute it for a filling of your choice, such as bacon and onion (the traditional quiche Lorraine), leek and feta, salmon and dill, chicken and asparagus and so on.

Serve it with a salad - I'll be posting up our spinach, roasted pine nut and feta salad shortly - or even just some deliciously ripe sliced tomatoes, lightly seasoned with some salt and pepper, which is a perfect contrast to the toasty warm quiche.

You will need:

4 large eggs (Sometimes I use 5 to be safe)
1 1/4 cups of grated cheese
250g frozen spinach - defrosted and the water squeezed out
1 1/2 sheets of puff pastry - defrosted
Butter
2/3 cup of milk
Salt and pepper

Butter a quiche dish if you have one, or just any sort of round cake tin if you do not. Place the sheets of puff pastry into the dish and fold the edges down so they are about even with the top of the dish.

Whisk the eggs together in a bowl and add a pinch of salt and a little pepper, along with the milk.

Sprinkle your cheese into the quiche dish and pour the egg and milk mixture on top. Sprinkle the spinach on top of this, and you are done!

Cook for about 50-60 mins on 180 degrees C and then serve.

Eat and be merry!

This makes enough for 4 large slices of quiche.

For a mini version, I use a cupcake pan and go through the same process as above, although they take less time to cook - normally 20 mins.

Oliebollen - Dutch Deliciousness

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0000

This is a family recipe, as my family is from The Netherlands. I have grown up with these lovely balls of deliciousness, almost like a doughnut, but without the hole, dusted with a generous amount of icing sugar and served toasty warm.

I like the version with a little slice of apple inside, which can allow you to feel slightly healthy, but really I think it is just a delicious combination of flavours. Others prefer them with raisins (which I detest with a passion), and others still prefer theirs plain.

Traditionally these are served on New Years Eve (although you can enjoy them all year around, if you keep it on the downlow). My mother told me how the entire house was requested to tiptoe carefully around and not speak too loudly for at least 6 hours when my grandmother used to cook these many years ago... so as not to upset the olieballen and have them not rise properly. This resulted in my mother being too scared to cook them for many years, however we did make them not that long ago, and it was a huge success, although the house was strangely quite for a couple of hours and I was requested not to close the doors too loudly...

You will need:

1 kg flour
50 gm of compressed yeast or 3 sachets of 7gm dry yeast
950 ml warm (not hot) milk
1 rind of lemon zest (finely grated)
3 granny smith apples
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the milk and the chopped apples. Mix with your hands. The consistency should not be too stiff.

Cover the bowl/container with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for a couple of hours.

When the mixture has risen, heat some oil (enough to submerge the oliebollen into) to about 180 degrees celsius and start frying amounts in the oil - it is up to you if you want little oliebollen or slightly larger ones - about a tablespoon full at least.

The oliebollen should rise to the surface when ready, and they should also flip over quite cutely by themselves, but if not, just turn them over.

Once cooked, pop onto a plate with some paper towelling to remove access oil.

Then serve sprinkled with icing sugar, or even cinnamon sugar if you prefer. And for a little Aussie twist, have it with some golden syrup! (First tried by my mothers partner one night, and it tasted very very nice. After we had gotten over the shock of course!)

Enjoy and eat many! They are too delicious just to have one or two of.

Kladdkaka - Swedish Chocolate Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:21:00 +0000

I first experienced the delicious chocolaty Swedish dessert Kladdkaka when I stayed at a friends place on the beautiful little island of Visingsö in lake Vättern in Sweden.

Visingsö on a beautiful wintery day

Luckily, I have been given permission to use the recipe so I am posting it here for you all to enjoy. It is currently written of a little piece of paper and stuck into my Ikea cookbook, so it is probably good I am posting it here so I don't end up loosing it one day.

This cake is quite dense, thin, moist and a little sticky, not to mention very delicious and very simple to make.

You will need:

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
A pinch of salt
115g butter (melted)
40g coco
265 g sugar (about 1 and 1/3 cups)
Half a cup of plain flour

Preheat the over to 180 degrees celsius and butter the sides of a round pan. Mine is about 20cm.

Whisk the eggs then add in the sifted flour, salt and vanilla essence.

Melt the butter and then add the coco and sugar to it. Combine the two bowls of mixture together and then place into the pan and then into the oven.

Cook for about 25 - 30 mins. Remember the cake is supposed to be a bit sticky so be careful not to overcook it.

Serve with some cream and berries and enjoy!

Gehaktballen (Dutch Meatballs) and Stamppot

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:10:00 +0000

This is a delicious family recipe for gehaktballen, which are Dutch meatballs and stamppot, which I make using potatoes and spinach. I grew up having this from my mother and grandmother, and it is quite a simple to make, very tasty, traditional Dutch dish. (And quite healthy too!) Just the thing to have on a cold winters night.

Dutch food sadly has a reputation for being a little boring and bland, but I am here to prove this silly theory wrong. Dutch food may not had the decadent reputation of French food, but it can still be sexy! Once you have tried this recipe I am sure you will also agree with me.

You will need:
This will make enough for 4 people. (or 2 very hungry people)

500 g minced beef
1 onion finely diced
2 cubes of beef stock or 2 teaspoons of beef stock power
1 egg
breadcrumbs
6 large potatoes
butter
1 - 2 packets of spinach (250g) depending on how spinachy you would like the stamppot

Simply add the minced beef, diced onion and egg into a bowl, crushing the 2 cubes of beef stock over the top, as well as half a cup of breadcrumbs. Combine using your hands until all the ingredients are mixed together. If the mixture is still a little wet, add in more breadcrumbs.

Roll the meat into medium sized balls and place in the fridge for 30 mins or so.

Peel the potatoes and boil them until cooked. Mash them with some milk, salt and butter and then add in the spinach. I used a packet of frozen spinach so I just microwaved it but if you are using fresh spinach then chop it up and boil it and then add it to the potatoes. Mix well together and warm up again on the stove just before you serve.

Then simply fry your meatballs in a frying pan with a good splash of oil and make some gravy to go with it. I used gravox powder with some boiled water added it to. My grandmother used to cook the meatballs slowly over a couple of hours in the gravy, however I do not have that level of patience for meatballs, so I fry them fairly quickly.

I was always taught to make a little mound of stamppot on the place first, and then make a well in which to place the meatballs and gravy.

Serve with some apple sauce and a bit of mayonnaise. Yum!!